It’s no secret that publicly funded sports stadiums are bad deals for taxpayers, but the new AT&T Stadium being built for the Texas Rangers is the worst.
An investigative report by Brett Shipp and Mark Smith of WFAA-TV sheds some extremely disturbing light on the raw deal Arlington taxpayers are getting.
Initially billed as a 50-50 deal for the taxpayers, Shipp and Smith have found Arlington’s citizens are on the hook for “up to 80 percent of the tab, which amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars more than initially promised by city leaders.”
A recent “Master Agreement” was passed unanimously by the Arlington City Council that could funnel taxpayer money into the pockets of the Rangers, the report finds. Within the agreement is clause called the “admissions and parking tax” that allows for a 10 percent surcharge on event tickets and up to $3 additional surcharge on parking, per the report. Rather than being put back into the city coffers, however, this money could instead be collected by the MLB franchise to help pay for construction costs.
“If it really is a tax and could be used by the municipality, then in essence it’s just transferring revenue from the public sector to the private sector,” said Rick Eckstein, a Villanova University professor who studies sports stadium economics.
“There’s a sleight of hand here. There’s verbal gymnastics going on,” Eckstein added. “It’s relatively unprecedented in terms of stadiums I’ve studied over the last 20 years.”
These taxes could end up giving the Rangers upwards of $300 million over the course of 30 years, which would mean the franchise would end up paying just $200 million on a $1 billion stadium, with the taxpayers footing the rest of the bill.
“It is one of the worst public projects anyone could imagine,” said Robert Baade, an economist at Lake Forest College in Illinois.
When confronted with the numbers, Mayor Jeff Williams answered with a politician’s tongue.
“No, we are not giving away anything to the Rangers,” Williams said. “We are investing with the Rangers.”
Public funding is already something that should be done away with. Owners of professional sports franchises rake in money by the millions, yet they continue to seek financial assistance from Joe and Jane citizen.
A 50-50 deal is already outrageous, in this scribe’s estimation. What Arlington has agreed upon for AT&T Stadium is beyond asinine.